The Streets Are Quiet ...a Little Too Quiet
If you want a textbook example of an evolutionary process, take a closer look at how people in your organization are meeting, how they are collaborating, and how they are being trained and developed. I bet these activities don’t look much like they did a year ago, do they?
There are two forces creating these changes.
First, companies traditionally cut non-essential expenses in down economies, and training budgets, travel, and meeting costs are usually among the first casualties. Nervous executives are now seeking affordable alternatives to sending people off-site for conventions, trade shows, and the like.
Second, the advances in technology have made it a snap for people to interact in virtual ‘real time’ environments. Last year’s national election coverage on CNN featured a segment where correspondent Jessica Yellin, who was in Chicago, was literally ‘beamed’ live—ala Star Trek—onto the set of Wolfe Blitzer in New York. How far off is the day when you beam yourself into an annual convention to interface with thousands of others who are also not really there? (Think about this too long and your brain will turn into Ragu.)
With technology advancing and budgets receding, the entire process of business communication is undergoing radical transformation, with no end in sight. It’s become more productive, but less personal. More immediate, less gratifying.
Meetings and conventions are a big part of what I do, as I've planned, promoted, keynoted, and attended more than two thousand over the past 24 years. I know that incredible things take place when a group of diverse people are brought together in one physical location to share ideas, exchange information, and engage in community. But I've come to realize that two out of three of those things can now be achieved at a very high level through web-based meetings; meetings that don’t require people to be in one physical location.
Last week I had the privilege of moderating a webcast for good friend and colleague, Mark Sanborn, author of the bestselling book The Fred Factor. More than 1800 people registered for the hour-long live event, and Mark delivered a brilliant program on leadership and personal excellence. I had attended a webcast event just two years earlier, and am astounded at how far the quality of this online medium has come. But having been in Sanborn’s audience many times over the years, I know the online audience was getting only a fraction of what they would have experienced in a live program. The difference wasn’t Mark; it was the medium.
As capable as they’ve become in allowing us to share ideas and assimilate information, web events, teleseminars, eLearning programs, podcasts, and even holographic beams can’t match the intensity of face-to-face contact, and they are weak, at best, when it comes to engaging people in community. Regardless of their claims, these kinds of platforms tend to seclude and isolate rather than unite and rally.
And to survive this economy, you’ve got to unite and rally your troops. If you’re not taking steps to engage your people in community, you’re giving them an open door to disengage from it.
Drive the streets of the average suburban neighborhood and you’ll get an unsettling view of the way technology can disengage what was once a thriving community. You won’t see a lot of kids outdoors uniting and rallying, shooting driveway hoops and playing hide-and-seek. Technology has lured them indoors to partake in a virtual world, often interacting with other kids they don’t know and will never meet. (Helps explain why your Gen Y’s are virtuosos with your latest operating system but struggle for a reply when you say “Good Morning.”)
So, should you take full advantage of all the tremendous technology-based tools and strategies to reduce meeting costs and encourage your people to meet, train, and collaborate online? Or, should you continue to invest in live meetings that enable you to unite and rally your people into community and a common direction?
The answer is yes.
Banks should have tellers and ATM’s.
Supermarkets should have cashiers and self-checkout stations.
Service-based companies should have live phone attendants and automated push button cues.
And your organization should leverage the power of technology to meet/train/collaborate in a cost effective manner and continue to plan and promote live company meetings to increase the intensity and value of shared ideas and information, and engage your community.
If your office is looking more like the streets of your neighborhood with your people spending more time interfacing with screens than with each other, don’t take it as a sign that all is well and productive. It may be time to pull them into the streets for a little kick-the-can.
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Imagine being able to attend a high-level business conference next week with five internationally acclaimed keynote speakers/bestselling business authors. Featuring interactive learning sessions, you’d get up-close-and-personal with the experts, and if you missed something, you have free access to download recordings of any of the sessions. Well, it is happening, and you can attend. Best of all, the week-long conference will cost you less than the price of an economy-class airline ticket, something you won’t need, because you don’t have to leave your desk.
Eric Chester is the kickoff keynote speaker for the Managing Millennials Online Conference, October 26-30. This is an all-star lineup of Gen Y best-selling authors, thought leaders, and speakers.
It’s a webinar on steroids, and you don’t want to miss it. Save $25 by entering the discount code “Chester” as you register.
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Kick that College Grad Out of the House! …No Wait, Don’t!
(Join the conversation and post your thoughts in Eric's latest blog.)
As staunch as I had been on this issue, I’ve got to admit, I’m wavering a bit as of late...
My 23-year-old staffer, TJ Wihera, is a godsend... Read more
Whys Up
People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.
Theodore Roosevelt |
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
Albert Einstein |
Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.
Bill Gates |
Technology does not run an enterprise, relationships do
Patricia Fripp |
If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger.
Frank Lloyd Wright |
It is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome.
T.S. Eliot (about radio) |
Somebody told me it was frightening how much topsoil we are losing each year, but I told that story around the campfire and nobody got scared.
Another Deep Thought by Jack Handey |
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Newsflash: The Vikes are undefeated. The goat is untethered. Riopel is unintelligent.
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